All kinds of foolery, with focus on books, life and regular kitty reports

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Twofers: The Scatter Here is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer and In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda

Twofers = Two for the price of one, aka two mini reviews.

The Scatter Here is Too Great by Bilal TanweerCopyright 2014Harper (short stories)Source: HarperCollins I'm jumping the gun a bit, here, as The Scatter Here is Too Great doesn't release till mid-August. But, I want to write about it while it's still fresh in my mind. I took The Scatter Here, etc. with me to New Jersey because it's a book of short stories and I've found that when traveling short stories can be excellent for those stop-and-go moments when you can't sit still long enough to read an entire novel. As it turned out, I had tons of reading time on vacation. My granddog and I had a terrific time reading together.

The stories inThe Scatter Here is Too Great are all set in Karachi, Pakistan and they're centered around a deadly bomb blast. The author tells the same story from a number of completely different perspectives. And, in some ways they are interconnected -- the father of a character whose story you've read early in the book may appear later, telling his own version of the events, for example.Unfortunately, I found that the biggest problem I had with The Scatter Here is Too Greatwas in trying to figure out how the characters were connected. I enjoyed the stories, found the setting fascinating, liked the way Karachi was -- yes, I've read the claim that saying so has become a cliché -- a character in and of itself. I did think the setting had a life of its own, so I don't mind sounding a bit cliché. Once I realized that I was trying too hard to figure out those connections, I enjoyed the reading a lot more. In the end, though, because I wasted so much time trying to figure things out instead of just immersing myself in the stories, the book ended up being an average read. Recommended but not a favorite - Solid writing, vivid setting but I think the book would have had more impact without any character crossover, which I found bogged down the reading for me.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for visiting my blog! I use comment moderation because apparently my blog is a spam magnet. Don't worry. If you're not a robot, your comment will eventually show up and I will respond, with a few exceptions. If a comment smacks of advertising, contains a dubious link or is offensive, it will be deleted. I love to hear from real people! I'm a really chatty gal and I love your comments!

I Love Books

About Me

Bookfool periodically whispers unusual words and disappears in a puff of smoke. New review policy can be seen below by clicking on the Eat, Sleep, Read image. All material (including photos, but excluding most cover images) is my own unless otherwise stated and thus protected by copyright. Please leave a comment on any post to request permission to use content from this blog.